Richard Wilson is founder of Wilson Holding Company and the CEO of The Miami Family Office, a single family office with $500M in assets, he runs the largest family office association globally, and is a bestselling author of The Single Family Office Book.

Financial Advisor Marketing

Financial Advisor Marketing Differences Q & A

Question:When marketing to financial advisors for your hedge fund, what necessary steps do you need to take dealing with these guys? Is it any different that dealing with family offices?

Answer: Marketing to financial advisors is much different than marketing to single and multi-family offices. Here are the main differences between the two that I have noticed:

Family ffices have more established due diligence procedures, often involving consultants or internal analysts which do nothing but look at hedge funds or alternative investment products.

Financial advisors have lower minimum asset levels for what they will consider investing. 90% of family offices only seriously consider investing in hedge funds with at least $75M-$100M, and many require $250-$300M or even $1B in assets under management.

Family offices are more tight lipped. It will take more effort to develop a relationship, meet in person and get clear feedback on why or why a hedge fund is a good fit for what they are looking for.

Family offices are harder to identify in the first place. Financial advisors are easier to find, there are more of them and they advertise more openly. Some family offices advertise but many stay below the radar and some purposefully don't even have a website.

While family offices service to high net worth investors almost exclusively many financial advisors work with a broad spectrum of client types - this might require more caution by them and your fund in marketing products to them. It might also mean sorting through more financial advisors to find one with several HNW clients.

In my experience financial advisors seem much more sensitive and motivated by how they will earn a commission or income from the transaction whereas many family offices charge rich enough fees that this is less of an issue.

While some financial advisors may take 16-24 months to really get "on board" with a relevant hedge fund manager, understand your investment process and possibly invest most will come to terms a bit before then. Family offices on the other hand often take 18-24 months just to complete their due diligence and committee meetings, it is a very long sales process.

Both family offices and financial advisors require genuine relationship-building efforts and tenacity

From a legal standpoint there may be other precautions your fund should take but I am not a legal expert so I can't provide any guidance within that space.

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